Gareth Cox believes the strength of his Bracknell Bees defence could prove pivotal if the side is to dispose of Manchester Phoenix in this weekend’s EPIHL play-off quarter-finals.

The coach, however, told GetBracknell how the two-leg tie is theirs to win as he prepares his charges for a return to the end-of season competition for the first time in four years.

Cox said: “We will need to be very defensively smart and sound.

“And we need to make sure we pick up our assignments and look after our own in the first leg, and when we get our chances, make sure we take them.

“They (Manchester) are a very strong offensive team, like we are, so we just have to make sure goal tending is key for us and make sure everyone is on the right page.”

Bees set up the last-eight fixture with the Phoenix after bringing the curtain down on the regular season with a 7-5 win over Sheffield Steeldogs at the Hive on Sunday night, a victory which secured the side a sixth place finish.

Bracknell open their play-off account at home on Saturday night (6pm) before travelling to the North West for the deciding second leg on Easter Sunday (5.30pm).

And if Bees are to overcome the Phoenix and secure a trip to Coventry the following weekend as one of the last four teams left in the competition then the side must make the most of home advantage, Cox said.

“We are at home to them on Saturday and we need to make sure we do a job on them,” said the coach.

“We have not had the best of luck up there since they have been in the EPIHL, but it is ours to win really.

“We go up there full of confidence and knowing what we can do – we have beaten them at their place already this year and we will need to go and do it again.”

Meetings between the two sides this season have been largely forgettable for Bracknell, who take on a opposition they have beaten just once in 2012/13.

Five of the six encounters also saw Phoenix dish out some heavy defeats, which includes the 7-1 and 6-3 successes on their home rink before triumphing 8-3 when they met at the Hive earlier this month.

Bees’ only victory came when they secured a 2-0 win in Manchester at the turn of the year – the club’s first win at Altrincham Ice Rink in 12 attempts.

Although level on points with Swindon Wildcats, who suffered a 6-3 defeat at Basingstoke Bison on Sunday, Bees leapfrogged their Wiltshire rivals by virtue of a better head-to-head record having won all six encounters between the two teams this season.

They joined Swindon on 53 points following the victory over a Steeldogs side who have this year missed out on a place in the play-offs.

But with both sides clocking up more than an hour of penalty offences between them, the game was far from pretty.

Cox, however, was pleased to see his side pick up the two points and end the contest with his charges avoiding both injury or game misconduct punishments.

He said: “It wasn’t pretty to watch.

“But the biggest thing for us is to come out of the last two or three weeks without any injuries and we have managed to do that.

“Everyone is pretty healthy and ready for the weekend, which is important for us.”

The win also helped the side erase some of the memories from the night before, where Bracknell fell to a 5-2 defeat at bottom side Telford Tigers, as goals from James Galazzi and Pavel Strycek proved to be nothing more than consolation.

“The whole day was challenging,” admitted Cox. “There was snow here in the morning, driving up there in the snow, hitting traffic and then a bad game.

“But it was a day to be forgotten and it was about making sure we won on Sunday and getting ourselves ready for next week.”

He added: “We have been taking it easy the last few weeks and just trying to make sure no one got hurt and making sure everyone is healthy.

“Our form could have been better but the guys know what they are doing.

“Everyone has been playing and everyone has been getting confidence because they have been playing, so we are quite lucky at the moment that we have a fully fit squad to choose from.”

- Shaun Thompson has been called up to the Great Britain preliminary squad ahead of next month's World Championships in Hungary.

The forward was added to the 40 man man squad yesterday, which will be reduced to 22 before the team departs for Budapest.

Thompson leads the goal scoring charts for the Bees in 2012/13, having netted 35 times.

He has also chipped in with an extra 38 assists for 73 points in 54 games, making him the second overall scorer for Bracknell this season and fifth in the EPIHL rankings.